Frankfurt growth for the climate of tomorrow
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OfThomas Stillbauer
conclude
The palm garden is planting a “climate tree” and showing two types of flowers that have never been seen there in a spring exhibition.
The gardeners are not entirely satisfied. As was shoveled for the photo – no, that’s not how it works. Everything again, and this time please don’t pile up all the earth on the tree trunk. The tree doesn’t like that.
It is of course a great thing what is happening in the Palmengarten on Wednesday: A “climate tree” is being planted, a Hungarian oak, on exactly the 151st birthday of the garden. A symbolic act, but not only. “We want to honor the Palmengarten again,” says Rosemarie Heilig (Greens), head of the environmental and climate department, just as the jubilee was honored for a year, with many events, music, a large exhibition and a new blossom and butterfly house, “and we also want to do something.” For the climate, for the future.
Why the Hungarian Oak? “Because we are looking for tree species that can cope with climate change.” All over the city. The Palmengarten is of course involved. It offers the root depth that is no longer so common in floors above underground parking lots and on subway shafts, and it also has a historical responsibility, says Palmengarten director Katja Heubach. With the climate tree, the garden rewards a glimpse into the future. This is also a challenge in the balancing act between the requirements of climate protection and tradition as a “monument” to botany. But the local trees, some of which are as much as 150 years old, probably also serve as a laboratory for long-term observation, says Heubach: Which plants can defend themselves against increasingly long dry phases, but also cold winters?
No giraffes
PROGRAM in the palm garden
The camellia and azalea show starts this Thursday in the gallery at the palm house and lasts until April 18th.
Plant exchange in the Palmengarten is on the weekend, March 19th and 20th, with green rarities, exotic, rare and special plants, tips from experienced gardeners and opportunities to buy.
The anniversary exhibition “Frankfurt’s green heart – 150 years of Palmengarten” runs until March 27th.
Don’t worry, says Heubach, “we don’t want to turn everything into steppe and savannah here” and settle giraffes from the zoo on it, as is sometimes joked. “We’re doing everything we can to not have to do that. Basically, it’s about holding water.” In the soil. As far as nature and its connections are concerned, the Palmengarten probably also has an educational mission.
The climate tree replaces a 140-year-old Norway maple that had to be felled last year due to old age. At the same time, the gardeners are testing a new deep irrigation system. It is said to help control root growth. Like so many other things, the association “Freunde des Palmengartens” took over the financing of the Hungarian oak: around 1000 euros.
It’s not the only significant tree in this West End oasis in terms of hope for natural resilience to climate change. There is even a short tour of the “trees of the future”, in whose phalanx there are red maple, black walnut and warped oak, while the pedunculate oak is one of the losers of the climate crisis.
If you want, you can find the trees of the future and their locations in the Palmengarten app on your smartphone. For those who prefer to have paper in their hands: The leaflet “Trees worth seeing” with 150 entries on the garden plan has been reissued – from Henry’s lime (Tilia henryana) to Chinese flowering dogwood.
But there is also something to see inside: a “dream couple in spring”. For the first time, the Palmengarten is presenting camellias and azaleas in a joint exhibition. It should be a small compensation for the fact that so little was possible last year because of Corona. The 40 large camellia bushes and 150 azaleas of different varieties, arranged in the gallery by Dominik Heukemes and his team, offer a wonderfully colorful picture of spring for the coming weeks.